"Also, Leisia asked me to ask you, are you going to sign up for the Spring Horse Race around Tobesk?"
Dorothy asked again, and the news about the spring horse racing was what Shad had heard at the racecourse outside the city in the fall of 1853:
"If I have nothing to do by then, of course I will participate. I have fully trained my horse riding skills this winter. I have great confidence in myself, especially in long-distance horse racing on complex terrain."
"Well, I'll remind you when I have some news. The prizes every year are actually pretty good. Of course, the people who participate in the competition care most about the reputation."
Dorothy looked at Shad with her green eyes:
"Knight, if you can win the top three, I can play some interesting games with you then."
The foot under the table rubbed against Xia De, and Xia De blinked:
"Have you also read those illegal publications of Ajelina that Leicia took away?"
Dorothy's smile remained unchanged:
"I won't come tonight. You and your cat can stay at home by yourself."
"I... ... "
"I really have something to do. An elective exam."
She kissed the side of Shade's face.
From Tobesk to the Randall River Valley, the perceived temperature dropped by about three degrees.
The cat, who became lazy after eating, just as Shad expected, curled up in Shad's arms and refused to come out. When Shad arrived at the Wilde Opera House, he even thought about leaving the cat in the opera house and letting the girls in the opera company take care of her, but it was obvious that Mia hated being left in a strange place by Shad more than going to the suburbs.
This time, four people went to the Night Temple together, Shade, Luvia, Miss Lassus and Miss Benannis.
The two leaders of the Golden Dawn had temporarily left the city, so the witch naturally had to explain how to deal with any incidents. Shade took this opportunity to ask Miss Lathers about the follow-up progress of the "petrified plague" incident that had occurred since yesterday, but the situation was worse than Shade had imagined.
"The number of victims is still increasing, and there is no pattern at all. They appear randomly among people of all ages. The only thing known at present is that the victims have lived in the Randall River Valley for at least five years."
In other words, if the current situation does not worsen, at least Shad and Luvia will be safe.
"Does the church have any solution?"
Shade asked worriedly, and Miss Lathers pursed her lips and shook her head:
"Just like I said yesterday, this is almost a plague, it's just not contagious... Not yet."
"I heard from the association this morning that people living in the church of the Sun and Earth are immune to this effect, but the local church is only so big. In addition, some divine items of the Sun Church can suppress the spread of the petrification curse, but now there are so many victims..."
Luvia was also in a bad mood:
"The association held a ceremony last night to find out the source of this crazy land, but the progress was not smooth."
Xia De thought about it:
"Will the universal earth elixir prepared by my Holy Grail be effective after dilution?"
"In theory, it should be possible."
Miss Benaness came back and said:
"When we come back, give me a Holy Grail and I'll make an elixir and try it out. But even if it works after dilution, with the petrification curse spreading, how many people can your Holy Grail save?"
The four of them still rode out of the city on horseback, but Luvia had no experience in long-distance riding in the wild, so the four of them rode three horses, with Shad carrying Luvia. It can be seen that the girl with purple eyes was quite happy.
Because they had been there once before, and they set out earlier today than last Sunday, so by the time the four of them went deep into the eastern mountains of the Randall River Valley, got ashore from the frozen river, and saw the mountain where the temple was located from afar, it was just twelve o'clock.
Leading the horses ashore, they walked forward in the cedar forest and then tied the horses to a tree. In order to prevent them from being eaten by wild animals in the mountains, the witch also released "wild animal protection" for protection. The last time I came with the witch, the body of the wild bear that was killed by Shade's "Moonlight Wheel" had disappeared at this time. I don't know who got the advantage.
The four of them found the entrance to the cave they had been to last time, and then walked up the steep stairs in the cave. They found the entrance to the cave, entered the cave, and continued to walk up. Soon, they saw the light in front of them.
Shielding his face with his hands, Shad first came to the narrow platform on the side of the cliff and saw the remains of three stone arches.
There were even traces of the camping he and Miss Benannis had set up last time. But when he arrived this time, Shade realized that in this excellent place for birds to build nests, there were no traces of flying birds, and even bird droppings could not be seen.
"So this is it. Although it looks ordinary, inspiration can sense a very ancient power."
The other three ladies also followed at this time, and it was Luvia who spoke.
Looking at Luvia and Miss Lathers standing side by side and looking around, Shade suddenly had a strange feeling. Nearly two thousand years ago, they came here together on a nice winter night, and then one of them said under the starry sky that she wanted to kill the other.
This kind of thing has happened more than once. But this time, when the two came here together again, what happened was different.
Thinking of this, the feeling of almost touching fate appeared again. A smile appeared on Xia De's lips. His coming was indeed meaningful.
"You have a weird look in your eyes."
The witch patted Shade's shoulder:
"Hurry up and set up camp. If you don't eat, the cat in your chest will probably come out and scratch your face."
The cat was in a bad mood not only because it didn't eat on time, but also because it was bumped all the way on the horse.
The chance to become Fiona's housekeeper that Shade had bought with the ruby had run out. He thought the four of them would just heat up some food here, but when the bonfire started, the witch took out another ruby and handed it to him:
"I'm not as rich as Carina, but I'm still rich."
Luvia smiled and pushed the hesitant Shade, so Shade used the ruby to cast a spell. After the sumptuous lunch appeared, the white note sent with the lunch stated that the ruby could be exchanged for two more kitchen service opportunities.
This time, at the end, there was no simple drawing of a smiling face, but a simple drawing of a dragon maid with an exaggeratedly large tail.
For Shade, the primary purpose of coming to the Night Temple this time was to extract the Time Key, and the secondary purpose was to find the statue of the "Ancient God of Space" mentioned by Long-haired Luvia. As for other secrets including the gold mine, they were secondary.
Of course, Shad suspected that the "door" corresponding to the key he got from Earl Granger was also here, but he had no hope of finding it.
After lunch, Ms. Benanis and Ms. Lathers went to find a suitable location, and Ms. Lathers used the magic of the cult to sense the memory of the earth to determine whether it could be extracted. Meanwhile, Shad returned to the cave with Luvia to look for the hidden wall.
"Based on my experience, the entrances to these types of spaces are all below the horizon."
Shade used his fingers to illuminate the view in front of him while observing in the cave with Luvia:
"For example, my basement, the underground wine cellar of the White River Valley Vineyard, and so on. So, if nothing goes wrong, we should start from underground this time."
"The floor of this cave is slightly higher than outside."
Luvia said, and took out the obsidian pendulum she had obtained during the Eldron Lake incident. After shaking it a few times, she said to Shade:
"Although I can't divine the space left by the ancient gods, I can still divine whether there is a downward passage here. It should be in the southeast corner. Let's go inside."
Because Shade purified the land half a week ago, the bodies of the deformed animals still lie inside the cave. Although the weather is cold and the decay speed is not fast, maggots can already be seen.
Considering that this would not be the last time he came here, Shade took some time to clean up the inside of the cave. He was very gentlemanly and did not let Luvia do it. After the cleaning was completed, he and Luvia continued to walk into the cave instead of going up the cave.
The area of the hollow in the mountain is very large, almost one-third of the bottom of the entire mountain. Xia De should have been able to directly sense the power of the ancient god of space at a close distance, just like he found the space under the lighthouse on the island in the middle of Lake Pantanal. But it was unknown whether it was the influence of the power of the earth or the remnant of the power of the Night Temple on the mountain, Xia De did not directly sense his target this time.
He and Luvia spent nearly two hours in the afternoon, letting Shade's time and space spirit runes illuminate every inch of the ground and walls, and even used a spell to turn fossils into mud to melt some suspicious boulders, but they did not find any trace of the hidden space.
Luvia even suspected that Shad had gone to the wrong place, but Shad couldn't tell where he got the information from.
On the contrary, Miss Benannis and Miss Lasser made faster progress. At 2:30, the two ladies found Shad and Luvia who were still in the cave, and climbed up to the Temple of Night high on the cliff with them again.
The group of four passed through three ancient stone arches and came to the open space at the end of the arches.
Originally, there was nothing on the ground here, but last time, when Xia De threw the Vientiane Impermanence Card here and "violated" the time travel, the ritual formation of the sun, moon and stars appeared, which was imprinted on the ground. After clearing away the snow, you can see that those traces seem to have existed for thousands of years, not like they appeared last week.